Anime Review: Occultic;Nine (2016)

Director: Kyōhei Ishiguro
Distributor: Aniplex USA
Release Date: September 26, 2017
Runtime: 288 minutes
Availability: on Blu-Ray, streaming dubbed and subbed on Crunchyroll, check to see if it's streaming in your country here

Occultic;Nine is a story about an odd group of people brought together when mysterious, supernatural occurrences happen around them. It focuses on a group of people connected to the "Chōjō Kagaku Kirikiri Basara" occult blog website run by high school student “NEET god” Yūta Gamon.

It starts with the murder of college Professor Isayuki Hashigami, whose body is discovered by Yūta. He tries to figure out what he’s supposed to do after a mysterious voice tells him to take a strange key out of the dead Professor’s mouth.

This leads to a series of events that brings together a group of unlikely heroes that must stop a conspiracy involving the occult.

I found the story to be very interesting and a different take on science fiction and the occult, but interestingly enough, it isn’t really the occult, but trying to turn the occult into science fiction by trying to give a scientific explanation for supernatural abilities.

It’s an interesting idea, but the story was really weird and bizarre. It did think the mystery aspect was entertaining and the villain reveal was really different and unexpected.

This is a Science Adventure series is a very popular franchise and for it to have a spin-off series where the Science Adventure games are fictional in that universe is a very interesting way to do a spin-off series.

It does use a lot of the story archetypes of characters in the Science Adventure series. It does fit the pattern of the franchise even though it’s not a mainline Science Adventure series.

It’s especially fun because of the Steins;Gate (2011) references in the anime knowing that it’s made by the creator of the Science Adventure series.

A-1 Pictures did the animation for the anime and it looks pretty good. It’s not super amazing or anything but it looks okay. I like the art style and how the characters look.

The animation is interesting, but not amazing. It’s one of A-1 Pictures greatest anime, but it’s not bad looking either. It’s pretty decent. If you’re expecting fantastic and amazing animation this probably won’t deliver that, but it looks good and has a nice presentation.

Erik Scott Kimerer is fantastic as Yuta Gamon. He brought energy and excitement to his role and he sounded like he was having a ton of fun in the role. He could also be serious and emotional when he needs to be.

I love Faye Mata as Ryoka Narusawa. I’ve heard her before in B: The Beginning (2018) and it was nice to see her in a comedic role. She has great vocal range and she did a fantastic job in this role.

Ben Diskin was hilarious as Kouhei Izumi. He played his character as stereotypical gay dude. He was also very funny, but very interesting as well. He did a great job voice acting and he was entertaining.

Cristina Vee was interesting as Kurenaino Aria. She played a very vulnerable and strange character. She was interesting and showed a wide range of emotions in her role.

Erica Lindbeck was great as Touko Sumikaze. I like how her character was serious and yet she took time to talk to other characters and was very important to the story. She gave a fantastic vocal performance in this role.

Erika Harlacher did a great job as Asuna Kisaki. She was an interesting character because she comes into the story a little later, but she did a fantastic job and I really liked her in this role.

Robbie Daymond was great as Sarai Hashigami. I loved how he portrayed his character as a geeky otaku. He did a great job and gave a great performance that was really fun and enjoyable and he’s the one who did all the Steins;Gate references.

There are just so many characters, I just don’t want to keep repeating myself about how much I like the English voice cast. Michelle Ruff and Xanthe Huynh also did a great job in their roles too.

I really love this dub even if it’s not one of my favorite anime I really found it enjoyable. The entire English voice cast is great and I found it to be a great job, and it’s hard to live up to Funimation’s Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes (2012) dub, while Chaos;Head (2008) and Chaos;Child (2017) are all right.

Masaru Yokoyama did a fantastic job on the anime soundtrack for Occultic;Nine. I really enjoyed the music for this anime. The soundtrack fits the anime very well and it’s very intense and exciting. I think the music is one of the highlights of the anime.

"Seisū 3 no Nijō" (聖数３の二乗) by Kanako Itō who has done all the Science Adventure anime adaptation openings. She did a great job performing this opening song and I really enjoy this opening a lot.

The ending is "Open your eyes" by Asaka. I enjoyed the song a lot, but I like the opening more.

If you want to hear a great soundtrack, you’ll like the soundtrack of the anime. It is one of the good aspects of this anime.

I really loved the plot twists in the story, the surprises are really great and the twists kept me entertained. They did a really great job keeping the mystery from the audience.

They also successfully pulled off a lot of nice foreshadowing that worked very well. I enjoyed rewatching because you’ll be able to see the subtle hints they dropped about what was going to happen in the story.

If you want interesting plot twists and surprises, you’ll probably like Occultic;Nine.

The pacing of Occultic;Nine is ridiculously fast-paced. It’s like Chaos;Head’s ridiculous pacing, but I enjoyed Occultic;Nine more. The fast pacing is very annoying to the audience because it feels like they’re trying to cram too much into the story due to the short episode count.

The pacing is crazy, but fortunately, the original light novels are licensed so you can buy them and enjoy the story without the pacing problems. I still enjoyed the anime despite the ridiculously fast pacing of the anime.

The fast pacing does hurt the anime because it feels rushed.

This anime is one of the weirdest that I’ve ever watched. Everything is weird, from the plot to the characters and even the science fiction used in the story.

Some people might find it too weird as it just goes way out there and stays way out there the entire time throughout the anime. It’s something that will make or break the audience, the weird story and characters, along with the ridiculously fast pacing, can make the audience hate this anime.

Occultic;Nine is fun if you enjoy the Science Adventure series and you want to see the spin-offs that they made. It’s not a perfect story, it has pacing problems in the anime but it was a fun anime to watch if you want something to scratch your science fiction itch.

It’s not as good as the Steins;Gate anime adaptations, but it’s better than Chaos;Head and Chaos;Child. I did enjoy it on streaming but the blu-rays are very expensive in the U.S.

Occultic;Nine is an interesting anime but it has a lot of problems because it’s very rushed. I can see why people hate it, because everything is too rushed or they didn’t like the mystery. I do think that the anime isn’t quite one that I’d recommend putting on your shelf in your collection due to it being expensive. Having an English dub that I really love doesn’t mean I can justify that price tag to other people.

You might not like the mystery and how it ends or the ridiculously fast pacing of the anime, but I enjoyed binge-watching it a lot.

The anime is worth your time to stream it, but don’t buy it unless it becomes your favorite anime. It’s very expensive and not everyone is going to pay the price tag for the physical discs. AniplexUSA sets the price of the anime a little too high for me to recommend buying it.

I recommend streaming it on Crunchyroll if you’re interested in watching the anime, it might be worth your time but not necessarily worth your money. It won’t waste your time, but you might end up hating it because of its flaws. It’s a very polarizing anime that I enjoyed a lot, but I understand why people hate it.